In political discourse the goal has always been the same: win the argument. But today it feels a little different than yesteryear because it's: win — at all costs. Said another way, often the ends often justify the means. With this win at all cost mentality, something is sacrificed — the truth. Candidates tend to shade the facts one way or another when it concerns themselves and often outright lie about their opponent’s views.

One sad casualty in this "new politic" is the real meaning of Self Interest. Ask anyone what this term means and most wouldn't have any idea. Those who do respond usually confuse self interest with being self-centered or selfish.

Self Interest is a crucial conservative concept for the general public to understand. Without a proper understanding conservatives become easy targets, quickly labeled by opponents as greedy, mean spirited and self-serving. So what does Self Interest mean?

In Tuesday's H&N, the big story was, "Citizen starts recall effort". Before I begin to analyze the article, notice how the H&N makes this action in itself seem noble. It wasn't a person nor was it a resident. No, no. it was a citizen— inferring that this recall petition is an act of citizenry, an honorable act. No need to go any further and measure whether or not this action make sense or whether it is just. Nope, because a citizen has bravley brought this petition forth, it is now noble. By their headline, the H&N has declared it so and therefore set the tone for their report.

While I could spend an entire article talking about the motives of the H&N, it is more prudent to focus on the act of Chuck Collins (he's the virtuous citizen in this story).

According the H&N, Mr. Collins claims that the two commissioners have not,

Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch?

According to the Wall Street Journal Online, participants in the Federal Food Stamp program grew from 26 Million in 2007 to over 44 million this year. That's nearly a 70% jump in just four years. Another way to look at it is that every month, another 375,000 Americans become food stamp recipients.

America is no longer a nation of food producers; instead we are becoming a nation of food stamp recipients.

Here's an interesting question, what does the government require in return for food stamps? Yes, you read that correctly, what does the government require the food stamp recipient in return for free food? Only that you don't make too much money. Interesting. Here's a little story to illustrate:

In that article we reported that not only was did the Herald & News misrepresent the food-give-away program by pretending it had something to do with encouraging childhood literacy during the summer months, but then we found an ad in the paper —not just one day, but several days in a row — promoting the program.

Victor Davis Hanson (born 1953) is an American military historian, columnist, political essayist and former classics professor, notable as a scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary politics for National Review and other media outlets. He was for many years a professor of classics at California State University, Fresno, and is currently the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. (source wikipedia).

Mr. Hanson has written another fantastic piece on American culture and where it is headed if we don't return to a Judeo-Christian moral based foundation.

You can read all about how within five minutes of leaving his work station Victor's brand new power saw was stolen — and it just goes on from there. A very good read.

Klamath News is proud to announce the publishing of Oregon State Senator Doug Whitsett’s weekly newsletter. Why are we doing this? To keep the public informed. Apparently the Herald & News has an odd policy when it comes to our public officials. According to Senator Whitsett’s office,

Senator Whitsett publishes a newsletter every Friday and it is sent to the Herald and News, the Upper Rogue Independent, the Medford Mail Tribune and the Central Oregonian newspapers (all within his district). It is published in full and on their blog every week in the Medford Mail Tribune, and in the Upper Rogue Independent newspapers, and many times in the Central Oregonian and sometimes in the Bend Bulletin, as well as the Roseburg paper and some Eastern Oregon newspapers.

The Herald and News has never printed a copy of any of Senator Whitsett's weekly newsletters to his constituents. He was told the only way he could regularly reach his constituents in Klamath County through the local newspaper was to buy "advertisements".

Summer Lunch & Story Time — H&N Wed. June 8, 2011. If you missed it, the pictures and the headlines describe a wonderful summertime program for children sponsored by the Klamath County Library and Integral Youth Services.

If you don't read through the entire article you are likely to think that children will be encouraged to read during the summertime while receiving a nutritious lunch. However, if you do read the entire story, you'll find out the program is little more than free food for children ages 1-18 who show up to a certain location at a certain time. However, only three of the 27 locations are at a library, where books are. Moreover, stories are going to be read to them. There is no indication that children will be "encouraged the read". What about the other 24 locations? Free, nutritious lunches for children 1-18, period.

What are the odds of a 1-year old going to this food-give-away alone? Right, mom, dad or someone will have to take them... oh yeah, and they can get food too. We all know how this works: the lunches are already made and will spoil if not eaten. This is not a for-profit enterprise it is a government give-away program so the more lunches given away the better it looks for the program. Matter of fact the program boasts that last year 600-700 lunches were given away each day — almost 29,000 during the summer.

Some say it's not polite to speak the truth in such a bold fashion. Others say not to hold back but just to speak your mind. There is probably some wisdom in both and knowing when to apply each bit of wisdom makes one, well, wise.

Klamath County is suffering a terrible time economically. A 13+% unemployment rate is awful for even one quarter but Klamath has been dealing with this reality for over two years — with no end in sight. Reality is rearing its ugly face and with the national economy set to double-dip into another recession, Klamath residents are holding on for dear life.

The cold, hard facts are that our community, our county, our state and our nation thrive only when capitalism is allowed to thrive. Our county does not work, when 13% are not working. Our county does not work when public employee sector jobs are the envy of the jobless or those gainfully employed! Mark Belling substituted for Rush Limbaugh today and uttered this profundity,

The Herald & News is at it again. On June 1st, their front page article titled, "Jail levy: City, yes; county, no" the paper "reports" on the break down of the jail levy failing and points the finger squarely at rural idiots.

The paper printed quotes from the Klamath Falls mayor and other city officials, but must be shy on phone numbers for comments from those who live in Chiloquin, Bonanza or Merrill. The story does nothing to explain why voters voted the way they did, just to point subtly the finger at rural residents in the county for the reason the levy failed (and at the same time assign blame). So, to do the work the H&N should've done, I'll explain why voters turned down the levy in rural areas of the county.

Sunday's Herald & News’ feature article was titled, “How Much We Pay Our Public Employees”. The paper outlined several different public employees with salaries above $50,000, $100,000 and even $200,000. With the Klamath County unemployment rate hovering well above 10%, that report ought to make a few folks a little jealous if not angry.

That said, we applaud the paper’s investigation and reporting. These are public employees that get paid by us. We ought to know what they are making. Moreover, we ought to be able to control how much they make, but sadly often can't.

The Old Lemonade Stand

As children many of us made a lemonade stand to earn a little summer money. We'd find a box, make a sign, stake out a good place on the front lawn where passers by would notice us, and of course made the best pitcher of lemonade we could.